I had the best sleep ever last night. I think both Kendra and I were sound asleep when my alarm went off at seven this morning. It was great!
Breakfast was good…seriously, hot chocolate makes me
a very happy person! And it was also
nice because we left camp almost on time – at 8am. We were all set with music for the bumpy ride
to the Mara gates in order to keep “shaken brain syndrome” feeling at bay as we
all felt loopy after yesterday’s drive!
It took 40 minutes to arrive at the gates, but it seemed much shorter
than it did returning last night!
The wildebeest were nowhere near the gates today when
we drove in so we had a lot of driving to do to get to where they were
today. We drove a lot and saw a
tonne! I would love to know how many
kilometers we drove today…we returned back to camp at 5pm today! Anyway, we saw Topis first off. They are the Policemen of the antelope and monitor the area from high ground for
many other species to ensure safety.
These animals graze in multi-species grazing associations with others
such as the Thompson gazelles, impalas, zebras, and wildebeests; it is cool to
see them all together.
I like to stand up in the back of the van to get a
better view and to have a change from sitting all the time, so I spotted a
giraffe way down in the valley. We drove
there to see him and it was a Maasai giraffe.
It has spots all the way down its legs, unlike the Rothschild giraffe that
has white socks up to its knees. The
Maasai giraffe also stands taller at about 16-18 feet! I do like these guys!
We saw a bunch more wildebeests…and more wildebeests…and
more wildebeests…it was crazy! I looked
around so many times and all I could see where these animals. It was a bizarre feeling.
Driving along we spotted a group of elephants near
some bushes. I forget the name of the
plant, but it acts as an antiseptic for the animals, so they eat it when
needed. There were 11 elephants in this
heard – a few older ones and a few babies.
It was great to see the huge tusks on the elephants. The babies were running around and playing
which was super cute. I learned that
elephants have 6 sets of teeth. When
they run out of teeth they move to swampy areas so that they can continue to
eat greenery that is easier to chew.
That is why there are often bones of elephants in swampy areas because
they are old when they live in these areas.
We actually drove by a swampy area and saw two more elephants here! It was great!
I got such good pictures.
We drove up to a tree where there were several other
vans parked and after a while of searching found the two cheetahs we saw
yesterday. They weren’t far from where
we saw them yesterday and were two together again, so we guessed they were
probably the same ones. And, just as we
were leaving the park today we were able to spot a female cheetah at the base
of another tree, but she was really far away, so it was impossible to get any
pictures. Cool to see so many, however!
We saw a few carcases and bones along the way as well
as a lot of vultures up in the trees and eating one of the dead animals. It was neat to see in a gory way! There was also a hyena, awake, with a
tracking collar on him under a bush. It
was great to see another one because the few we saw from the ark were too far
away to get a really good view of!
We saw a pair of Secretary Birds (two different
times). They are called that because
they are white and black and look as though they have lipstick on their
faces. They also walk like they are
wearing high heels! It was cool to see
them as they searched for bugs and snakes on the ground. My other favourite bird we saw several times
was the Iris-Breasted-Roller that has seven colours on flight, and I got a couple of really
good pictures of it as well.
At lunch we headed over to the Mara River to see the
hippos. There were quite a few including
one who was mostly out of the water for lots of picture taking
opportunities. Kendra also spotted a crocodile,
which was amazing! And it was super
creepy to see all of the bones washed up along the shore of the river of the
animals that didn’t make it!
I was super happy because we saw a tonne of
zebra! I wanted to see a large heard of
them before we left here and I definitely got to see that today! It was great to see. They like to rest their heads on each other’s
backs in order to keep watch and still rest and it is so cute. They always seem so happy and relaxed
compared to the Thompson gazelles or some of the other more skittish animals.
On the way back we saw a few more giraffes and
ostriches and were lucky enough to drive up really close to two lionesses! It was great!
They were there sleeping away in the shade of some bushes. It made me realize how well camouflaged they
are and how easily we could have driven by so many of them along the way.
It was a really long day but we saw a tonne of
everything! It was really great.
Once back at camp we had a nice happy hour with some
Tusker Beer and a game of scrabble where Kendra totally won and I came in
second (just for the record). Then us
girls proceeded to buy some things from the gift shop – which sounds dumb, but
the prices are the best we’ve seen yet and the money goes back to the Maasai people,
so I guess it works! I bought a few
little utensils that I don’t need…yeah!
Definitely not a big spending trip – yet!
Dinner was a barbeque and the pork along with the
cheese and hot chocolate made for a great meal!
Now for a good sleep
before the bumpy road out tomorrow!
Night
-Allison
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